The Lonely Giant
by LittyBrit
Summary: No one has entered Gecko Moria's garden for a decade. A great wall blocks the way, and terrifying shadows are poised to attack any intruder. One day, a child named Perona notices a gap in the wall. She crawls through, beckoned by the secrets on the other side.
1. Prologue

A long time ago in the village of Gigascombe there lived a giant whom no-one had seen for ten years. His house was perched on a foothill overlooking the village, surrounded by fields and woodland. A towering wall of stone blocked the house from view so that only the highest windows and the roof could be seen. It was from these windows that the villagers sometimes glimpsed a hulking black shadow; the only evidence Gecko Moria lived at all.

Withered tree branches clutched the wall. The vast garden from whence they sprung was buried in shadow and ravaged by many harsh winters. Stories of its former state brought sad smiles to the faces of the villagers who remembered it.

The giant's garden had been their playground; a hazy, lantern-strewn wonderland of secrets, tricks and hidey-holes. It was best appreciated in the evening, when everything was still and the giant's shining white flowers were in bloom.

Moria was seldom home. He had, since his youth, answered the call to adventure - often departing on long journeys with a group of friends. In the meantime, he allowed the village children free reign of his garden, under the supervision of his servants. When the giant returned and saw them at play, he seemed pleased.

The last time Moria returned home was the last the children would ever see of the garden. Hearing the familiar thuds of the giant's footfalls, the children turned to see a monster with mad, bulging eyes, half smothered in bloodied gauze. Drawing a haggard breath, the giant barked: "Leave."

Some children ran immediately, while others quivered under his hateful gaze. Moria lunged and they fled screaming. As they ran they could hear the giant shouting: "Out! Out, you brats! Never come back!".

By the next morning, the giant's servants had left their master's house. Some had fled the previous night, terrified by Moria's rage. Those that stayed were dismissed.

Shaken villagers approached the giant's house to demand an explanation. They saw black imp-like figures with hollow eyes busy at work, steadily constructing a wall of stone around the giant's garden. When some of the braver villagers tried to pass through, they attacked.

From then on, the people of Gigascombe avoided the house altogether. They even made a new road out of the village to give it as wide a berth as possible. The giant's nearest neighbours were so terrified of becoming a target for his minions that they abandoned their home and lived with friends until a new house was built for them further away.

Fellow giants came to visit Moria, but the few who managed to bypass his traps and minions were rejected by their maker. The villagers trembled as thunderous crashes shook the earth, howls echoing across the valley. After hours of fighting, Moria's foes were beaten. The giants left and never returned.

The neglected garden became home to Moria's shadow minions. They crawled about in the foliage and along the top of the wall, looking for intruders. Moria had accrued many treasures over years of travelling, and with wealth there came thieves willing to steal it. Those who attempted to do so were dragged screaming into the giant's lair.

The first night the villagers were sure Moria had killed the thieves, but early the next morning they were awoken by loud shouts. Peering out of their homes, they saw four men running through their village. Their clothes hung off them like rags and they bled from many wounds.

Dawn was beginning to break. A village elder opened his bedroom window and peered out at the men.

He looked at the ground beneath their feet and paled.

"_Stop!_" he screamed. "_The sun – get out of the sun!_"

It was too late. As the morning light hit their bodies, the men turned to dust and were swept away on the wind.

The next day the shadows of the dead thieves could be seen walking atop the giant's wall, keeping watch for their master.

This grim event did not stop further attempts by bandits, pirates and even giants in the years to come, but the result was always the same.

The village children grew up in the shadow of the selfish giant's wall. Scarcely a day went by when they did not catch a glimpse of the towering barrier that had ended their carefree lives. Shadowy ghouls, doomed thieves and blood-chilling screams cursed their nights.

As the years went by, the villagers began to recognise one particular scream. It rent the air on many a night, and set itself apart from the cries of unlucky ne'er-do-wells. Some said it was the ghost of a notorious pirate whose shadow Moria had stolen. Some said it was Moria himself, tormented by the ghosts of those he had killed.

No-one knew. No-one dared to find out.


	2. Through the Gap

Walking back from Mr Fawcett's wheat field, Perona watched her breath drift into the freezing air and vanish before her eyes. The snow-laden fields around her sparkled in the sun, and the sloping hills to the east, freed from the early morning mist, gloried in their untouched beauty.

At the base of the hills sat the giant's house, hiding within its stone prison. Perona could see the bark of dead trees clawing over its sides and the moss and weeds marring its stone face. The thought that this wall had been constructed by hundreds of small, shadowy hands sent shivers down her back.

What truly drew her eye, however, was the house half-concealed behind it. It seemed Moria had been primarily concerned with keeping out humans and small-to-average sized giants. The top half of the house peered out at the world; a solitary tower of grey seastone. Ornate, web-like flying buttresses connected it to smaller towers. Patches of royal purple tiles could be seen through the snow that smothered its steepled roof. Many were broken, and some had fallen from their places to the hidden ground below.

A tall arched window, larger than all the others, lay in the centre of the great tower, overlooking a balcony fit to hold a giant's weight. Today was the first time that Perona had seen the curtains drawn back. Perona imagined the maddened eyes of the giant watching her from behind the glass and shivered, clutching her patchwork bear, Bearsy, close to her chest.

Looking across the fields at the towering wall that surrounded the house, Perona's spirits sank.

Did the Yugaoshima moonflowers bloom in Moria's garden still?

It was at that moment that she saw the gap.

Perona stopped in her tracks. No. It couldn't be.

She ran. She had to see. She had to be sure.

Perona stood still, breathless, staring at the giant's wall. There was no mistaking it now. At the very bottom of the wall there was a rectangular shaped block of white where stone should be.

There was a gap.

"Perona!"

She jumped and turned. Farmers from the nearby fields were shouting and waving their arms.

"Get away from there!" they cried. "He'll see you!"

Perona rushed to obey, retracing her steps through the snow, leaving the 'Giant's Path' for the path the villagers had made to avoid it.

One farmer, Mr Hawkins, strode towards her, his eyes wide with anger.

"What were you _doing_?" he barked. "Do you want your shadow stolen?"

Perona stayed quiet, staring at her shoes.

Mr Hawkins sighed.

"You've been here long enough to know better, Perona," he said. "Never go near that house!"

Perona nodded.

The farmer patted her shoulder.

"We're only looking out for you. Go home now."

Perona nodded and started walking towards the village, her feet crunching along the path. Although Mr Hawkins's words had stung, her mind was filled with thoughts of the giant's house.

_The tower's got to be three hundred years old! _she thought._ That style of buttress didn't exist before then. And sea stone hasn't been used to build houses since the Pugin Era! But what about the rest of it? And the inside? Inside..._

Her heart pounded. From what she'd heard from the village elders, the house had been built by a distant ancestor of Moria, Gecko Hine. As the giant family expanded, the house became too small to live in, and so they moved elsewhere. The house changed owners many times before falling into ruin, remaining this way until thirty years ago when Moria returned and settled in.

Nobody had ever seen the inside of the house. Was it all as great, grand, old and wonderful as the outside? Did the secrets she sought dwell inside it?

All of a sudden, her life's dream was in her sight, gleaming a heavenly white.

The humble cottages of Gigascombe were built from limestone. The soft golden colour of the stones seemed to keep in the warmth of their surroundings, even in the bitterest winter. In the centre of the village was the small market square, complete with market cross and water pump. On bustling market days the villagers could almost forget Moria and his shadows.

The village was not quite deserted - some children were playing in the square. They called out to her, but Perona didn't hear. Her mind's eye was fixed on the gap in the giant's wall.

The cold impact of a snowball hitting her face jolted Perona from her thoughts and she yelped. The children laughed as she brushed the snow from her face and stomped towards them.

"What was that for?" she yelled.

"We were calling you!" said Joseph, a tall boy with sandy hair so frazzled people joked he must have eaten the Rumble Rumble Fruit.

"Yeah," said Daisy, a girl with blonde plaits and a freckled, pouting face. "Didn't you hear us?"

"Sorry," Perona said. "I was thinking."

"What about?" jeered Jeremy, the eldest at thirteen. "Who to curse next?"

"I'm not a witch!" Perona snapped, reddening.

Jeremy smirked, raising an eyebrow.

"You've got to be, look at your hair," he said, point at her orchid-pink pigtails.

"Shut up!" Perona yelled, grasping them protectively. "I was thinking about the White Castle!"

"The one on that island?" Jeremy said. "You're still into that weird stuff?"

Perona could feel her cheeks reddening.

"Yes I am!"

"You want the treasure?" asked Martin, a little boy of six.

"No!"

Jeremy scoffed.

"_Stupid_, Kaido lives there! But maybe a witch can kill him?"

When Jeremy laughed, Perona whacked him in the face with Bearsy and ran. Leaving the square behind, she turned a corner and jumped up one step to knock on the door of Mrs Pendragon's house, breathing hard and blinking back tears.

The door opened, and Mrs Pendragon looked out. She was a thin woman in a demure grey dress. When she saw Perona she smiled, and her cheeks turned the same pink as Perona's hair.

"There you are, dear!" she said. "Did you work hard?"

Perona smiled.

"Yes, Mama."

Looking closer at her face, Mrs Pendragon's smile faded.

"Are you alright?"

Perona nodded.

"I'm just cold."

"Bless you, come in!"

Ushering her inside, Mrs Pendragon shut the door.

"Brrr - my word!" she said, shivering. "Shoes off, darling. Go change your clothes so I can wash them."

* * *

That evening, Perona rushed upstairs to her room and grabbed a book from her bookshelf. Titled _The Island of Legend_, it contained all the information that had been gathered about Yugaoshima, an island to the east so remote and dangerous to get to only a handful of people had ever reached it. Of these, only one had made it home alive.

That one had been Gecko Hine. The giant had never revealed the secret to his successful trip, but he had been more than happy to tell stories of the wonders he had seen.

Flipping open the book, Perona pored over painstaking illustrations of Yugaoshima's White Castle, the largest of its kind ever recorded, and the oldest. It was a hilltop complex of eighty buildings; storehouses, gates, keeps and towers. The main keep stood in the centre, the tallest of them all. The golden tiled roofs curved at the corners, and bore the dragon crest of the royal family. The castle's great stone walls were painted the purest white, and it shone in the sun's light like something divine. It had seen war, conquest, disasters and triumphs; a thousand years of life and loss.

Perona beamed, unable to contain her giggles.

What hauntings occurred in that ancient palace? What secrets lived in its walls? How could she reach a place so many had failed to glimpse? Had the old giant kept a diary? Had the story of his journey been passed down the family line? Were there relics that would give clues to hopeful travellers?

The answers lay in Moria's house.

That night, Perona crept out of bed. Donning a wool dress, boots, and gloves, she wrapped herself up in a thick rouge cloak and she sneaked downstairs. She found a lamp, which she lit before making her way to the door. A blast of freezing winter air hit her face as she opened it.

Gripping the handle of her lamp tightly, Perona stepped into the bitter night and began to walk.

* * *

Not even layers of clothing could protect her from the cold's sting. Trudging through thigh-high snow, Perona hid her lamp with her cloak and kept her hood up until she was safely out of the village. Following the forbidden path north, she made her way towards the giant's house. The stone of its tower and fortress was made silver under the moon's glow.

Before her was a valley of white sparkling under the full moon. The sky was empty of cloud, the purest black, and studded with stars. A profound silence reigned over the land, and Perona was acutely aware of the thudding of her heart, the sight of her breath, and the soft crunching of her footsteps.

Silent and watchful, Perona approached the great wall. It loomed so high it hid the moon from her sight. She could see no sentries – not at its very top or bottom.

Locating the gap, her heart began to pound. Dwarfed by the space a block of seastone once filled, Perona was flooded with dread. If she turned back now, she would be safe. She could go home and forget about Moria, his house, his garden, and his ancestor. She would have to forget about Yugaoshima and its castle, too.

Biting her lip, she stepped forward. Hoisting her lamp up into the gap first, Perona heaved herself up. Feeling the rough stone beneath her hands, she began to crawl.

Within moments, she was through, dropping down on the other side. Taking a deep breath, Perona looked around.

Snow blanketed almost every inch of the vast landscape, but even it could not conceal the chaos that ruled here. A decade of neglect had turned the garden into a forest. Withered, dead trees sprung up all around her. The branches seemed to claw at once another in their bid to reach the sun, and many had fallen foul of bad weather, split in two, and died.

A faint, purplish mist hung low to the ground, creeping along with the wind. The cold seemed to bite more viciously than before.

There were no signs of Moria's shadows. Holding up her lamp, Perona stepped into the forest, peering through the gloom. Grass, weeds and shrubs grew out of control and scratched at her legs as she walked.

_The moonflowers won't be blooming now_, she thought. _They hate the cold._

Her wandering eye caught sight of a purple-coloured tree just ahead, and she ran to get a better look.

It was the Gum Gum Tree. Out of all the Devil Fruit trees, its was regarded as the most bizarre. The tree was so elastic that it would bend and twist any which way the elements took it and still snap right back into shape. Nothing could crush it. Stories told of the tree being struck by lightning and left entirely unaffected. Eating the fruit from the tree gave you the temporary ability to bounce great heights.

This one's branches were bare on account of the weather, but Perona's heart bounced just seeing it. The thinner branches sagged under the weight of the snow on them. Unable to resist, Perona grabbed one of its exposed roots and pulled, stifling a squeal as it stretched as far as she could take it before snapping back.

Breathless, Perona continued on. She spotted the Rumble Rumble Tree, its blue trunk in the shape of a lightning bolt. Eating its fruit made your hair fizz for a short time. It, too, was immune to lightning strikes. In fact, its bark glowed when struck. Perona could see no fruit hanging from it.

The Fire Fire Tree she found further on was suffering especially badly in the cold; its crimson bark had turned a dull brown and its branches were brittle and broken. It looked dead.

Perona's heart sank. Not only was it a sad sight, but knowing its fruits' ability to grant the eater a toasty warm sensation - and apparently, in some cases, fire breath - her body felt all the colder.

Then, through the silence, a man's voice shouted: "_Now!_"

Perona's heart leapt into her throat and she ran. The gap was her only chance. All around her the shadows of the trees were flashing across the snow, converging on her.

Suddenly small, implike creatures burst out from the blackness and swarmed her tiny body. Perona's scream was muffled under the heap and she felt hands clawing at her clothes and face. Her lamp fell from her hand and smashed on the ground, tramped by hundreds of feet.

"Idiots, it's just one human!" the voice shouted. "Bind her!"

Perona felt the shadows shift and slide away, leaving two to secure her hands and feet. The rest lingered close, watching. Perona twisted and jerked, but their grip was unyielding.

Out of the group came taller, human-shaped shadows. Their leader stepped forward, peering at her. His eyes were like bottomless pits. His mouth, only visible when he spoke, was equally empty.

"A child," he muttered. "The master won't be pleased."

"Let me go!" Perona shouted. "I haven't taken anything! I just want to see-!"

The shadow grinned.

"Sorry, kid, no can do," he said. "The master wants to see you."

He stood up and ordered the others to head for the house.

Deaf to her pleading, the shadows carried her through the forest like a captured deer. Perona's heart hammered against her chest and she sobbed. She cried for Mrs Pendragon, Mr Hawkins, the village elders.

Had her dreams been doomed from the start?

Suddenly, they stopped. A pair of giant wooden doors opened before them, moaning heavily.

The ghoulish procession walked inside. Perona watched as the last remaining light was snuffed out with a thunderous slam.

She trembled. The house no villager had ever seen - she was inside it.


End file.
